nonce word

1. 1.

   a word with a special meaning used for a special occasion

   Synonymshapax legomenon

   Broaderword

Questions about nonce word

What does nonce word mean?

nonce word means "a word with a special meaning used for a special occasion".

What is another word for nonce word?

Close synonyms include hapax legomenon. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is nonce word a common word?

nonce word is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.